Messages - thewanderer01

I didn't live on campus, but those that did complained endlessly about how difficult things like grocery shopping was without a car. Transit is great into Manhattan, but for errands it isn't very convenient.

I'm planning on attending Rutgers - Newark in the fall, but I'm from Seattle. Does anyone have any advice about what neighborhoods are either a) close to campus, or b) a nicer part of Newark? I went out to Hoboken and Jersey City with my fiance while we were in town, but I was also interested in looking for something in Newark itself. Looking on craigslist I see places like North Newark, Forest Hill, but I have no idea how close they are to campus and what the neighborhoods are like. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I would wait a year and try to get either scholarship $ or in-state tuition. Tulane is a good school but I'm not confident that it is worth $150k. Rutgers-N I usually recommend only for NJ residents because of the reduced cost.

If you go to a lower ranked school, you will need to market yourself very heavily to get a job. If you're the entrepreneurial type and very outgoing, I think you would be ok at either school. You might not get the job you want, but you'll be able to find something.

Make absolutely sure you want to be a lawyer if you choose to go. Talk to as many people as you can, including those who made it big and those who left the profession. And be wary of career services. Really ask the hard questions about placement for those who aren't at the top of the class.

If you're willing to sign a 12-month+ lease in NJ before school starts then RU-N will consider you a resident.

I took a look at the option on their "Alternative PRIVATE Loan Options" page (http://finaid.newark.rutgers.edu/Alternative%20Loan%20Options.htm) and remember thinking the NJClass option appeared to have a better rate/fee structure than most of the other options on the page...but I haven't hammered out my own details yet. Have you run your credit history and/or got your credit score? You can get a fairly good idea of where you fall, relative to a bank's published rates, if you know that info.

Yeah, Lewis and Clark must think that they are an Ivy or something. After sending me a fee waiver they decided to defer me. I then received an e-mail asking if I was still interested in attending on April 31st. After calling them up I was told that I had been waitlisted and that I could be taken off the waitlist "from next week to late August". This was just absurd so I withdrew. Maybe they sent me the fee waiver because they wanted to lower their acceptance rate.

I thought that Santa Clara or the University of San Diego would have been on this list but they gave me a decision and never played any games with my head. I applied to Lewis and Clark because I thought that the California schools would shun me but the opposite happened. I was actually really excited about going to Portland but I think that I will be much happier in San Diego. USD has made me feel better about the whole thing though because I had just come back from visiting them when I got the Lewis and Clark e-mail which said that I had to respond by May 4th or I would be withdrawn. On may 4th I received a $16,000 scholarship from USD so I guess that worked out. Similarly, when Loyola had waitlisted me, USD took me in so I guess it was meant to be. They were my third choice and the first two rejected me. I should have never wasted my time with Lewis and Clark because they are the ones who got my hopes up and then treated me poorly. Case Western Reserve accepted me a few days ago but they took forever. I'm going to USD anyways so I guess it doesn't matter.

Santa Clara: Applied: 10/27/06 Complete: 11/29/06 (over a month that early in the cycle) Decision: 05/11/07 (196 days from transmit to decision and NOTHING in between)

I was by no means an auto-admit, but I'm just annoyed about waiting so long.

Sort of off-topic, but I've seen a lot of Rutgers-N people looking at private renting, does the school not offer residences at all? Are they poor quality? Or is it generally just wanting to be in a better location?

I also heard lots of good things about the graduate housing is in and of itself nice, but its still living in Newark.

On another living in Jersey front, when is a good time to start looking for apartments? WA is a 20 day notice state, so you can look whenever you want, but you can't really be sure of what places are available until the 10th or 11th of the month before you want to move. I'd really appreciate any insight.

My fiance and I are making the treck out from Seattle. We're hoping to find a place in downtown Jersey City, or possibly nearby campus for the first year at least. Hoboken would be fun, but we aren't counting on being able to find an affordable place to live there.